Soldier on landscape is a total fail imo, because :
1) This is supposed to help ppl questing when leveling a new pg from 1 to 85... but... who have the marks to train a soldier before reaching the cap with a new pg?
Others have addressed the cost post-U5. Certainly pre-U5 it wasn't difficult to maintain a soldier at character level.
2) Player that was at cap for 2-3 month or more have powerfull gear and skilled soldier... and simply don't need any help questing from 75 to 85.
This makes a completely unwarranted assumption that the landscape content *won't* have difficulty set to the assumption that every player character has an on-level soldier available and in use.